We have all read about this city. We have all seen this city on the silver screen. We have all heard about this city...but it's nothing like living in this city. The more time I spend here, the more amazed I get. It's the plurality of the city that amazes me. The existence of multiple realities and multiple histories characterizes this bustling, bursting city.
Take for example the name itself- Mumbai. The Shiv Sena government which was responsible for the change of name said it wanted to get rid of the colonial baggage, and so sometime in the mid nineties, by the stroke of a pen Bombay became Mumbai. And slowly the city started getting an all new identity. The Crawford Market became Jyotiba Phule Market, and the famous Victoria Terminus was given a new identity by Chhatrapati Shivaji.
But the emergence of a new identity has not erased an older history. So, the old Bombay exists side by side with the new Mumbai. BMC still remains BMC. Fried 'Bombay Duck' still remains the favored cuisine of the 'Mumbaikar'. The faithful Bombayite still waits patiently in serpentine queues to get a glimpse of Mumba Devi. And Mumbai’s politicos/socialites still want to be seen on Bombay Times.
If this is a reflection of the present, let's take a peek into the past. 'Bombay' came into existence with the arrival of the Portuguese in India. And its prominence can be attributed to Britain's love affair with this sea-side hamlet. If this is what official history suggests, popular belief says that this is the city of Mumba Devi. So, do these apparently contradictory histories trouble the denizens? No, it doesn't. For them one is a matter of fact, and the other is conviction of faith.
This city is fighting a losing battle against space. Everywhere you see, there are people...thousands of them, trying to get an extra inch. Everyday millions snugly fit into a few feet in the 'locals'. Look around and you'll see a pair of eyes staring at you. But loneliness is the first thing that strikes you when you set afoot in this city bursting at its seams. Everybody is stranded alone amongst millions, looking ...searching for a 'face' in a sea of faces.
Surprising? Perhaps not.
This city boasts of being home to India's richest. More than half of India's income tax collections come from this city. But in this city of billionaires, poverty runs amuck. Just step onto Senapati Bapat Marg (in Lower Parel), one of the busiest business districts in the city, and you'll find streets lined with uncountable people...fighting to get their piece of bread (or should I say 'pav'?)
It is this co-existence of opposites in apparent harmony, is what surprises me. And as time whizzes past me, this city slowly unfurls itself… It makes me wonder about myself, and poses a thousand questions, to which there are no (ir)‘rational’ answers.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
